Heather Somers – The Future of Connecticut’s 18th District With an Absentee Senator

Connecticut Innovations, the state entity that financed 18th District Senatorial Candidate Heather Somers’ successful and unsuccessful businesses, realized a net loss on investments of $5,819,766, for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. In Somers’ business deal, the taxpayer lost a trifecta.

In entering into a joint venture with Somers, only $475,000 of the state’s $1 million dollar investment was recouped. Only 8 of 150 jobs promised were created and the company was sold out-of-state! Somers was given a sweet settlement deal and allowed to pocket a large return on investment while the taxpayer absorbed over a half-a-million-dollar loss.

Connecticut has a growing number of quasi-public entities, like Connecticut Innovations, Corporation, that mingle venture capital with taxpayer dollars to finance businesses and public projects in the name of job creation and economic stimulus.

Unfortunately, the business dealings of these administratively expensive, quasi-public entities are not transparent and oversight of joint ventures is virtually non-existent. There is little if any accountability to the taxpayer for the millions of dollars the state invests in each business.

Governor Malloy desires to expand the use of quasi-public entities and increase their regulatory power. His cozy relationships and business dealings with wealthy global hedge fund companies and venture capitalists require immediate scrutiny by Connecticut legislators.

Somers is certainly not the only politician or business owner in the state who has enriched themselves with Governor Malloy’s help at the expense of the taxpayers but it disqualifies her from positioning herself as a change agent in Hartford.

One of Ms. Somers’ current campaign promises is to beat Governor Malloy and sadly, her campaign is not focusing on the needs of the people in Connecticut’s 18th senatorial district. This race is merely a stepping-stone for her future plans to run for Governor in 2018.

Before voting for Ms. Somers, question if an absentee senator will be in the best interest of the district or your town. She has already started to campaign for a race she’s not running in, without doing anything to help the district she is running in. District residents should be concerned that they will have to search Fairfield County waters, where Connecticut’s rich capitalists swim, in order to find Somers who will be spending much of her time raising funds for the next two years.

I encourage Somers to run for Governor in 2018 as a Democrat and allow the Republicans to chose a contrasting fiscal conservative. She made the decision to harshly and publically condemn Donald Trump and ask for his resignation to gain newspaper endorsements. Her signs have been popping up on lawns throughout the district next to Hillary’s.

Placing her political career above the needs of blue-collar workers in Connecticut who support Trump is a disappointment, but for conservatives who do not wish to see Hillary choose the next three SCOTUS justices, Somers is a saboteur.

Connecticut’s business climate will not change with Somers in the Senate or as Governor. She is not a fiscal conservative and voters are waking up to the fact that crony capitalism and corporate welfare is non-partisan. Mom and pops, the middle class, and the working poor have already paid dearly for Somers’ brand of special interest economics under Malloy and when there is no distinction between a Republican and a Democrat, more Republicans will leave the party and the state.